The death of Santa

This past week my daughter informed her first grade class that Santa Claus was dead.  When confronted with skepticism, she told the doubters that her father "said so."  Some background information is in order.  My daughter has always had some doubts about Santa.  She knew that characters like Dora, Ariel, and Cindarella were not real, so Santa seemed somewhat implausible.  My wife and I have always taken a neutral approach towards Santa.  If she wanted to believe, write letters, leave out cookies, we were fine with that.  On the other hand, if she asked us if he was real, then we saw no need to lie to her and I never cared for the parenting approach that involved Santa as some omniscient quasi-deity that watching to see if you are good (just like the Dept. of Homeland Security).

I was probably in 2nd grade when I figured out that Santa wasn't real.  My parents never made that big deal out of Santa.  We always opened presents on Christmas Eve (like many Scandanavian families) and had a few small presents from "Santa" the next morning.  My wife's family did the whole Christmas morning Santa thing.  Her Dad even dressed up as Santa on Christmas Eve and none of the kids ever figured out it was him until they were much older.  

Following the conversation on doubting Santa, we bought her a book on the historical and mythological origins of Santa.  Knowing that he was alive hundreds of years ago, she figured out that he was probably dead now, hence the conclusion that Santa Claus is dead.  I do remember talking to her about keeping her conclusions to herself, as some kids believed there was a Santa and it wasn't up to her to kids otherwise.  I am sure her teacher will get some calls on this one.